Nokia bumps Cinemagraph and PhotoBeamer apps for Lumia Windows Phones

There’s barely a day going by where Nokia isn't updating something on Windows Phone, so why should today be any different? We just got notifications for version 2.6 of their popular Cinemagraph Lens app for Windows Phone 8, which is now live in the Store, allowing you to continue making those hilarious animated GIFs. And the super creative PhotoBeamer has also been given a refresh.

Cinemagraph

The latest update of Nokia's Cinemagraph app (see overview) now allows you to create landscape and portrait ‘Graphs on the go and reportedly supports a “wider range of device”, which we presume includes the Lumia 505, 510 and 620. Sadly, this does not enable support for Windows Phone 7.8 Lumias although that is expected to be coming at some point (we’re guessing through a separate app release).

We gave 2.6 a spin and maybe it’s just us but it seems to load faster, which is always a bonus. Portrait mode does work but for some reason it doesn’t seem as accurate to us at picking up movement, but that could be just our experience.

PhotoBeamer

We wish we could tell you what’s new with PhotoBeamer but alas it has no changelog and whatever is new, is not really evident. That tells us this is probably a maintenance release as opposed to a feature one. Either way, it was a cool app before and it’s still a cool app now, so you if you’re looking for a quick NFC-less way to share photos with others, then you’ll want to grab this app.

There are two versions of PhotoBeamer, one for Windows Phone 7 Lumias and one for Windows Phone 8 Lumias. Both have been updated today.

I think that Nokia should continue their great app work but make some money too! They could do this by making the apps free on Nokia phones and paid on others. I have HTC 8X and would by these apps for the right price. This would give them $$$ but still treat their customers better with free versions.

We don't want a monopoly, and we don't want fragmentation. I showed my Android mates my WP7 phone & they all kept asking if it was the same experience on different phones & I proudly said that it was all the same for everyone. But now if you're with Nokia you get a whole set of different apps and with HTC you get a different set and everyone else gets scraps. I can no longer say "buy a windows phone, MS guarantee it's the same great experience" instead I have to say "well the OS is the same, but if you buy X you get these apps, but not those ones, oh and this phone has microSD but not that one, and if you want turn by turn then buy this one, but if you want blah then get that blah blah blah". People want simplicity when buying, not a bewildering array of choices and agonising decisions over which features are important to them. That's why Apple did so well - you get a limited choice and the same features. At least if we can purchase the apps then it just comes down to what hardware suits you - screensize, colour, storage, camera and you're done. It costs you a few bucks for the apps, but you're still happy & there's another WP in the world.

It's interesting...I've been reading sites for a couple of years now, and it seems as though NO ONE complained about 'fragmentation' when Samsung had their own apps and HTC had their own apps and LG had their own apps.

Just because Nokia has their own apps and pays money out of their coffers to have exclusivity of apps for a period of time does not make the platform fragmented. The user experience from an OS perspective is the same across all devices, however, each oem sweetens it just a bit by adding their own special touch - from hardware to apps.

From my viewpoint, the choice is , and has been, simple - before Nokia, I wanted to use WP, but was not interested in purchasing any of what was being offered. Now, I own a WP, and I chose a Lumia.

That's because before Nokia it wasn't an issue... Samsung had 4 apps, LG had 2, and HTC had 10, but they were all basic like weather, flashlight, or something specific to their mobile like dock mode or DLNA. There was nothing exciting or interesting or something that you couldn't buy alternatives. I was genuinely shocked when people kept talking about good weather & flashlight apps to buy when my HD7 already had good ones available for free - it was only then that I realised we had restricted access to different apps.

With Nokia it's all of the exclusivity that's irritating i.e. Game X comes out but only Lumia mobiles can get it. If you want City Lens or a whole host of apps then you have to choose Lumia. Nokia is becoming the default choice and I think that weakens competition on the WP platform and the ecosystem overall. Keep the OS & the apps even, then the OEM's have to duke it out on hardware which means less confusion over the user experience (i.e. X mobile give this experience, while Y mobile gives that experience) and the consumers win overall.

Nokia isn't here for that and if they would not be allowed to do that, they would be on the Android camp as well.
Nokia has after is a software house as well with S40, Symbian, MeeGo, Qt and Maemo. The software is their own and naturally they wont ever sell it.
It's what they did to Symbian. They developed themlserf and populated it with their own services and owned the platform.

Not to mention other OEMs like to give WP inferior clones. I thought we were going to have something with the 8X but it doesn't look like it. I'm thinking of going Nokia this time around. Too bad they don't have any premier devices on Tmo.

If you are able to go off contract places like expansys have a wide variety of Nokia phones available unlocked. I would check to see if one of those phone's supports t-mobile's network, I bet there has to be.

I agree, there's a boundary between being able to use an app or not because of those bugs, and in my experience the apps Nokia put out there don't make the cut into being usable in certain scenarios. I'm going down memory lane here, so these are a few major bugs I recall:

PlayTo never played videos well, stuggered with photos, not a big issue now since it's not even available on WP8

PhotoBeamer suffered of the same stuggered photo display, in all honesty it works better after today's update (which for the first time makes it usable)

Nokia Drive+ seems unusable, I took a long trip last week (~1,500mi) and it froze the phone (L920) a couple of times to the point where I had to switch to an iP5. Offline maps refused to work in an area where I had no connectivity (maybe it's not supposed to work, but then don't call them offline maps). Also, Nokia Drive+ suffers from a non-intuitive way to get back to the application in case you have to switch apps.

Nokia Music (my favorite Nokia idea) skips and chops tracks in offline mode. The song it's not over and it just cuts it off in the middle of the song. Or refuses to play it altogether.

The Nokia Music issue happens all the time both on my wife's and my L920. The "cool show off" but not really working state of Nokia software doesn't really cut it for me, that's a poor goal to have for your software, especially when you're coming from behind in a crowded market.